Last month, during the press campaign for The Devil Wears Prada 2, a clip from Anne Hathaway’s People magazine interview went viral. In it, she invoked the Arabic phrase “inshallah” after sharing her desire to live a long and healthy life.

For those raised Muslim or in a majority Arabic-speaking country, inshallah, which translates to “if God wills it”, is a colloquialism that is part of everyday life – but, historically, not a phrase that has been nonchalantly dropped into conversation by white, non-Muslim celebrities. While more and more people in liberal and leftist spaces have been using terms such as inshallah and mashallah over the last few years, hearing Sister Anne – as she is now being fondly referred to in TikTok comments – use the word, both casually and in the correct context, was genuinely surprising.

The incident has catalysed debate about whether non-Muslims are ‘allowed’ to use the word (short answer: yes). But more broadly, the clip – alongside the ecstatic response to Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory where memes about Sharia Law and the new “caliphate of New Yorkistan” proliferated, the popularity of Riz Ahmed’s new television show Bait which unpacks British Muslim identity, and Sesame Street’s Elmo being taught the word “habibi” by Ramy Yousef – has made it abundantly clear that Arab and Muslim culture is entering the liberal, western mainstream. 

Noor*, a 26-year-old graduate student in New York, finds celebrities such as Hathaway saying inshallah heartwarming, especially after years of being demonised or not represented at all by the media. “She used it so nonchalantly. It made our language and traditions feel normal within spaces that aren’t super tolerable or really aware of Islam,” she says. Noor is not alone in feeling this way: many Gen-Z muslims who grew up during the so-called war on terror were affected by the Islamophobic social and cultural aftermath left in its wake and find this cultural upswing refreshing. In my own life, I have noticed how much easier it has become to talk to friends about being raised Muslim without the discussion being laced with awkward silences or antiquated questions on how conservative the religion is. 

23-year-old Sana* says she feels inshallah and subhallah have beautiful meanings, and is enjoying how widely they are being used. “I will say inshallah and mashallah to anybody, whether they know it means or not, but it’s nice that more and more people understand what I’m talking about,” she says, noting how the mainstreaming of this language has enabled her to feel more confident about her dual identity as a she can hold as a queer Muslim in leftist spaces. “I’d hope that we’re not scared of religion and spirituality in these spaces. Even up until a few years ago, and probably still in some leftist circles, being Muslim or practising any form of faith was quite isolating and othering. I think over the last few years, people have started to see the nuances of being religious.”

“The internet has allowed for a collective culture that transcends locality”

Mohammed, 25, mirrors Sana’s statement. “To witness a celebrity [like Anne Hathaway], who represents the ideals of Western culture, wittingly or unwittingly, acknowledging the Quranic worldview that shapes the culture of billions of people, destabilises the dynamic of global cultures in a good way,” he says. “I think that’s why it’s a meme-able occurrence: it’s funny to see worlds collide. But within that same imperial culture, the adoption of Islamic terminology may take on a more malevolent function of ridicule, misappropriation, and misrepresentation.”

While there is no definitive explanation as to why more and more leftists and liberals are embracing Muslim and Arab culture, Noor suggests that it could be because people are “finally clocking that Western media is feeding us Islamophobia and xenophobia”, and how it is often a sign of solidarity from non-Muslim and Arab friends. As she points out, there’s a direct correlation between seeing the violence inflicted on people in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran, who are punished by Western imperialists based on their religion and ethnicity, and people waking up to how Muslims are perceived in the West. Similarly, Mohammed believes that this shift and Islamic-Arabic terminology like “inshallah” have become part of our digital lexicon because of Gaza and people being exposed to videos of Muslims speaking in Arabic. “The relative plurality of the internet has allowed for a collective culture that transcends locality,” he says.

While the cultural capital now associated with being Muslim and Arab in these leftist cultural spaces often comes from a place of genuine appreciation and interest, there is a concern among some that it can take an orientalist or tokenistic turn. Yousef, a 24-year-old student, experienced this firsthand, sharing how his life in the West completely changed in the weeks following October 2023 when Israel’s genocide in Gaza began. “In social spaces, I felt that my presence and appearance had become politicised. In certain circles, it was obvious that my identity carried more weight than my personality,” he says.

“People were suddenly swapping out South American anthropology essays with Palestinian ones. People in class would show me the latest trendy Palestinian music or whatever Arabic words they learnt that day,” he continues. He notes that while his peers may have been well-meaning, many of these encounters felt superficial and served to erase the other party’s guilt, rather than being a respectful way to engage with his culture. “Rather than feeling included, I often felt consumed, as though my identity had become something temporarily relevant. I honestly felt gobbled up by the culture machine, just waiting to be spat out at any minute for the next identity that is ‘cool’.”

“Maybe it is liberal posturing, but it feels like a net positive”

This feeling of being reduced to a cultural identity that is ‘trendy’ and ripe for consumption is one that was shared by Black friends during Black Lives Matter in 2020 – and, in the case of both experiences, is especially disconcerting when the government, its policies and its supporters are in opposition to this ‘trend’. Elmo learning a few Arabic words on Sesame Street in honour of National Arab American Heritage Month brought on MAGA outrage, with Fox News commentator Raymond Arroyo criticising the segment: “I wish 'Sesame Street' would stick to teaching kids about letters and numbers and leave the Arabic immersion to someone else,” he said on air last month. In the UK, Islamophobia underscores anti-immigrant political parties like Reform, while in the US, religion is being used to justify Israel and America’s war crimes. While the mayoral win for the openly muslim Zohran Mamdani pointed towards some change, he too faced Islamophobic backlash during and after the election. 

The concern that the cultural capital associated with Islam will not lead to substantial, material change is one shared many Muslims. “Let’s be real, Anne Hathaway saying inshallah isn’t saving anyone,” Mohammad quips. But despite this, they remain cautiously optimistic. Noor points to how Christian terms, idioms, lore and even iconography are everywhere in Western media. “They are omnipresent and it’s all very casual. Why can’t we have the same thing?” she says. “Maybe it is liberal posturing, but it feels like a net positive – because ultimately, racism is scarier than performativity.”